According to eight sex-disaggregated SDG indicators, in order to achieve gender equality is projected to cost $6.4 trillion annually from 2023 to 2030 for the 48 developing economies studied, equal to 20.5% of their collective GDP. This is translated to $1,383 per person, per year, in order  to eradicate poverty, alleviate hunger and support women’s equal participation in society.

The 68th Annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68), the UN’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s empowerment, took place from 11 – 22 March 2024, under the priority theme, “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective”.

At CSW68, governments, civil society organizations, experts and activists from across the world came together to agree on actions and investments that can end women’s poverty and advance gender equality. From the presentations The representatives of civil society declared that they do not receive the help that is required for their projects and were wondering where the 40 bilion that were given by the various foundations went.

The President of UNWOMEN, Sima Sami in her opening speech said that 1 out of 10 women suffer from poverty. 3 400 000 billion women will live in extreme poverty by 2030 and 1 out of 3 business are run by women. Accelerated progress requires investment. Data from 48 developing economies shows that an additional $360 billion is needed per year to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment across key global goals, including to end poverty and hunger. This amount is what is spent only for coffee. In this decisive year, as 2.6 billion people go to the polls to cast their votes, they have the power to demand higher investment in gender equality.

Memry Kachambwa, an activist from Africa said that in 2021 during the Generation Equality forum, 47 billion dollars were donated for equality. However, this money does not reach the civil society and she asked the donors where this money went during the last two years, how the money is spend and how is this money distributed. The same question was asked by another speaker, Aya Chebbi, who complaint that there is no transparency on how donations are spent.

Following this remark, Monica Aleman, from the Ford foundation, said that they gave 2 billion to built institutions and that the money the foundation donates goes directly to people. She also added that 9 000 000 from Ford  foundation will go for the elimination of gender violence and 50 000 00   to the  antigender movement, in order to prevent regression.

HE Lisa Paus from Germany said that 90% millionaire are male. She also said that poverty is caused by discrimination and that the 47 bililion that was given by foundations was and is spent to eradicate poverty, to education young girls and to support women entrepreneurs .

Ιn general the event highlighted how Generation Equality’s multistakeholder model is driving concrete feminist financing and accountability strategies and policies for gender equality as well as further mobilize the collective voice of Generation Equality stakeholders around shared priorities and opportunities for increased investments in gender equality and feminist financing.

The side event   featured the launch of an Accountability Report focusing on the Economic Justice and Rights Action Coalition which will highlight progress on commitments, blueprint targets and indicators thus far and showcase inspiring impact stories from Action Coalition Leaders and Commitment Makers.

The CSW68 side event explored innovative multi-stakeholder approaches and tested solutions for financing women’s economic justice and rights and for eradicating women’s poverty.

It was also mentioned that the world is at a crucial crossroad for gender equality. Globally 10.3 per cent of women live in extreme poverty today, and they are poorer than men. Progress towards ending poverty needs to be 26 times faster to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Solutions to end women’s poverty are widely recognized: investing in policies and programs that address gender inequalities and boosting women’s agency and leadership. Such investments yield enormous dividends: Over 100 million women and girls could be lifted out of poverty if governments prioritized education and family planning, fair and equal wages, and expanded social benefits. Almost 300 million jobs could be created by 2035 through investments in care services. Closing gender gaps in employment could boost Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita by 20 per cent across all regions.

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